A.N: Thanks for all your reviews guys! Unfortunately we did not reach my goal of forty-five but we got super close, so thanks to those who reviewed. Also the seemingly increased delay with this chapter is due to my most recent hospital visit... It may come as a shock to you but I get hurt a lot. But thanks to a recovering knee I will have plenty time to write my chapters. The only thing I'm struggling with is the length of this story, I don't know when I should end it or if I'm just stringing it on. Anyway, on to the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Maleficent and all rights go to their respective owners.
...
Though he was still wary of it, Diaval was nearly assured that his mistress no longer thought the terrible thoughts she had before, and she was no longer freighted something would hurt her. He would hurt her.
After all, it had been a good month since the 'Giselle incident' and life had been relatively normal, save the fact that now Aurora was constantly around the Moors, and there were certain things she and Diaval did that was not present in their past relationship as companions...
Mainly kisses, after so long of trying to get them to kiss, Aurora wished they would stop.
Stefan still regularly attacked, but this was not something the pair hadn't been used to. Aurora at first had been scared, but quickly began to view it as more of a nuisance than an attack.
"Godmother, do you think it will ever stop? That there will be peace between the lands one day?" Aurora asked one day, while walking with her Godmother.
"I suppose so, perhaps when your father passes away. But then the people will turn to you for leadership." Maleficent answered, gently placing a tiara made of flowers on the girl's head.
"I made it pretty clear that I wished to abdicate my claim to that throne."
"It all depends on what your father told the people." Maleficent replied lightly, stealing a small glance at the girl.
"I'm glad I haven't seen him in a while."
"Do you miss it?"
"My father? Goodness no, I barely knew him and with what he's done there's no way I co-"
"No silly Beastie, your life. Being a normal girl, having little romantic encounters..." Maleficent asked, a teasing tint in her voice at the last of the list.
Aurora began to blush slightly, biting her lips slightly.
"I wasn't exactly normal growing up Godmother," Aurora laughed, and the faerie chuckled in agreement. "I mean, I'm not unhappy here. It was always my dream to meet my faerie godmother, and see the Moors. Later it was to live here with you, so quite literally I am living my dreams."
"There are no men in the Moors." Maleficent commented slyly, a smirk appearing on her face.
"Except for Diaval, but you've put your claim on him pretty clearly." Maleficent's mouth fell and her head whipped around the face Aurora. "Oh please Godmother, don't act surprised that I comment on it, you can barely go an hour without kissing him." Aurora teased.
"That's," Maleficent paused to laugh, "not true."
"Oh it is, you greet each other with a kiss, you say goodbye with a kiss, you talk with a kiss, you go to bed with a kiss..."
Aurora stopped as her godmother swatted her arm, though still in light nature.
"You exaggerate."
"Not by much." Aurora mumbled, receiving another swat.
Just then the man in question flew towards them, transforming in front of the two.
"Hello there." He greeted, smiling at the two. "The prince has left the palace." He reported, glancing briefly at Aurora.
Maleficent smiled and on instinct pecked him on the lips, before blushing and stepping back. Aurora raised an eyebrow and smirked, a victorious look on her face.
"Out of all the things you could of picked up, you chose to remember that Philip is leaving?" Aurora asked skeptically.
"It stuck, there was really nothing but goodbyes." Diaval defended, but he knew in his heart that he chose to remember it because he knew it would interest Aurora.
"Do you want to meet him by the creek again Beastie?" Maleficent offered, nodding with her head towards the direction of Aurora's old home.
Aurora was about to deny everything, before she truly thought about it. There had been an attraction there true, and he would not be passing through here again for who knows how long...
Nodding her head the three headed down the familiar path, taking special certainties that there were no wandering guards.
"Could I go meet him alone?" Aurora inquiried, almost nervous about the answer.
Both the man and the faerie felt a surge of over-protectiveness wash over them, but nodded.
"We'll wait here." Maleficent announced, sitting against a tree.
"I won't be long." Aurora promised, smiling.
"Until then." Concluded Maleficent, watching as her charge disappeared down the path.
"Should I make sure they...?" Diaval's voice trailed off, but Maleficent knew what he meant.
"Of most definitely." She said smiling, Aurora would be embarrassed yes, but that was what guardians were for.
...
Philip had as promised, come her way again, just as hopeful about seeing Aurora as she was he.
She stood up at his approach, much like their first meeting. Offering him the stream to water his horse Aurora suddenly felt burning like never before in her cheeks. He sat, gesturing for her to do the same.
"You're a prince." She stated, not finding anything else to say. Incredibly awkwardly she swept herself into a curtsie.
"I find that that diludes most people from being their true selves around me." He told her, trying to ease the tension.
"Well it serves as an honour to meet you Prince Philip, before I knew you were as such."
"And I would say the same, yet I find myself very guilty at the fact that I know nothing of you."
"Well what would you like to know, Your Highness?" Aurora asked teasingly, feeling suddenly at ease. She sat beside him, still a fair distance, enough that if Diaval was watching he wouldn't be uneased.
"Anything you could spare to tell me. I know your name, and though it is beautiful it is not much to know, besides the fact it is the same as the lost princess's."
"Lost princess?" Aurora's head tilted, much like Diaval's when he was confused.
"More on that later, tell me more of yourself." Philip urged, smiling when she did.
"My three aunts raised me, but now I live with my godparents. It was a little complicated... but now everything is perfect." She told him truthfully, deciding to leave out other details for now.
"Well, I think that's absoloutely amazing that life is so good to you. Would you like to hear about the princess now?"
Aurora nodded her head eagerly, already having some idea what the story would tell.
"There was once this faerie, and she used to be good, but then something happened and she turned into a spiteful, evil creature." Aurora cringed slightly, trying to seem oblivious. "Not much was known, except that she appeared at King Stefan and the Queen's baby's christening, and cursed the child."
"What was the curse?" Aurora asked, trying to play a part she didn't know she could.
"That the baby would fall into a deathlike sleep by pricking her finger on a spindle, and that only true love's kiss could wake her. This was to happen before the babe's sixteenth birthday."
"Hm." Aurora mumbled, casting her eyes down but gesturing for him to go on.
"The King hid the baby away with three good pixies, for sixteen years and a day. So she would be safe by the time she came back. But she came back on her birthday, which was also the day I got to the palace."
"So the Princess didn't go to sleep?"
"They don't think so, after the curse was cast they destroyed all the spindles in the land and kept them in a room, deep in the palace. When they checked they were not touched, so she couldn't have been down there."
Aurora was fascinated by her own story, how odd to hear your tale from someone else.
"What happened to the faerie?"
"She has supposedly kidnapped the Princess, they were able to capture her a while ago but she escaped. King Stefan was enraged, and now he seeks to do nothing but destroy her, and get his daughter back."
"What a sad tale..." Aurora said, her eyes flicking towards a tree. Was that? No, besides even if it was, that tree branch was far enough away to be out of earshot.
"I think something more happened, something the King didn't tell me, or the kingdom." Philip announced, looking over at her to see her reactions. Her head whipped up in surprise and almost... relief?
"Really? Why is that? What do you think happened?" She asked hurriedly, inching closer to him.
"Obviously that faerie had such anguish brought to her that she felt the need to take revenge. I was just a child myself when it happened, no more than two years old."
"The King still attacks the Moors, isn't that where she lives?" Aurora prodded, hoping to guide him to the right conclusions.
"Yes, I think he did something to her. Something that was so terrible that it ruined her, or I guess I should say, damaged her." There you go, keep going. "I trust you to not repeat this, can I do that?"
"Of course, of course." Aurora gushed.
"King Stefan seems to have one thing on his mind, destroying her. My father wants to do trade with him, and all is in order with that, the alliance will be splendid, but there's always this... glint in his eye."
"I think you're right. I think the King did something terrible, and that maybe that faerie isn't evil. I think she's probably not even in the wrong, if the princess didn't even fall under the curse."
"She still kidnapped the princess."
"How do we know that's what happened?"
Philip looked taken back by that statement but the more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn't know.
"I hope that both the princess and the faerie, get their happy endings in the end."
"I hope she gets her happy ending too." Aurora concluded on the matter. "So, did you get lost again?" She asked, steering the conversation away from such matters as her godmother.
Diaval's eyes narrowed as the prince edged closer towards his child, they weren't exactly an arm's distance anymore.
"I was more or less looking for something around these parts." He whispered, grinning charmingly.
"And did you find it?" Aurora replied, just as charming.
"I did." The Prince said, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "What's this?" He asked, gently stroking the tiara on her head.
"Oh just a gift from my godmother." Aurora told him, she could hear a raven sqwaking and knew that Diaval was indeed watching over her.
Philip turned towards the noise, with his brow furrowed.
Aurora made gestures from behind him, and Diaval picked up that her message went somewhere along the lines of 'Leave, you're embarassing me and I can't believe you're doing this.'
"Ha, it's like that bird is watching us. Maybe he's guarding you..." Philip teased, watching as the bird took flight.
"Yeah, how funny." Aurora laughed, making a mental note to attack Diaval with mud later on.
Phlip turned back around, and felt his breath catch. He'd never seen such a beautiful girl before.
"May I kiss you?" He asked boldly, placing a hand over her's.
"I've never kissed anyone before..." Aurora confessed, not exactly sure if it would make a difference. She'd seen Maleficent and Diaval kiss, but had yet to actually know what it felt like.
"Neither have I." Admitted Philip, shrugging it off. "There's a first time for everything."
Aurora nodded, slowly leaning forward as he did. She tilted her head to the side, and slowly their lips met. Their eyes closed and Aurora's hands slowly wrapped around his neck.
Together they both made a move to deepen the kiss, but it didn't go quite as planned.
Aurora drew back, a mad blush tinting her cheeks, a petite finger on her lip. She laughed it off and leaned back in.
...
"How'd it go?" Maleficent asked, standing up at her Beastie's approach.
"Well, I had my first kiss." Aurora decided to cut straight to the point, there were no secrets between her godmother and her.
The faerie wasn't sure what to say, her mouth just hung open in a shocked silence. She blinked once before regaining her mental balance, the only other time this has happened was when Aurora had announced her as her faerie godmother.
"O-oh... Uh, how nice." Maleficent got out, still sort of shocked. "And how was that?"
"Well, Diaval interrupted right before it happened..." Aurora accused lightly, raising her eyebrows.
"I'm sorry, I had an idea it would happen, I was just being 'over' protective." Maleficent said, trying to stop the chuckle that was most definetly going to surface.
It was comical really, she could almost see the scene in her mind.
"Well, I shooed him and it happened. It was an okay first kiss, we weren't very synchronized and he bit me mid-way through but after that-"
Maleficent couldn't control the small fits of laughter that time.
"He bit you? That takes some serious disorganization..."
"Oh don't tease, we had no idea what to do. Though I felt like I should of, seeing you and Diaval all the time."
"How did he bite you?" Maleficent chuckled, her face remaining in a wide smile even after she stopped laughing.
"My lip got caught while we... deepened it, okay?" Aurora admitted, that blush that she had just gotten rid of returning.
"Hm..." Maleficent took a moment to think. "I can see how that could happen." She concluded, wrapping an arm around the girl.
"You're taking this surprisingly easily..." Aurora said warily, glancing at the faerie.
"Well, you've yet to tell your godfather."
"True. But before I tell him I still have to attack him with mud."
Maleficent laughed, feeling care-free for the first time in years.
...
Later in the Moors, around dinner, Diaval had been sitting peacefully under a tree beside the stream, in his human form. A sudden explosion of mud erupted from the stream, followed by the array of handfuls of mud being catapulted towards him.
He looked to the other side, finding exactly what was to be predicted. Aurora along with Maleficent, looking triumphant at his utter defeat as he essentially had to hide behind the tree.
He shook his head a content smile on his lips still though. He knew exactly what this was for, but surely this meant war against the faerie and his little fledgling.
A.N: So this was quite a sweet little chapter, I'm just in that sickly sweet mood. It was also the longest chapter of this story, which is pretty cool...
I believe that being teenagers, Aurora and Philip are bound to have some awkward encounters, and let's face it, the first kiss is the kiss no one knew what the Hell to do. It also has strong family tones to it, which I also love to write.
Diaval and Maleficent seem like the over-protective parents type in my opinion, but in a comical, not quite that serious, way. I also just think its a lot of fun to write.
And finally ending on this note, I thank you for reading, following and favouriting and especially reviewing! Love you all!